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Tuesday, 25 March 2014

'Hujjiat e Sunnah'/Essentiality of Sunnah (2)

In part (1) we have seen that the people disbelieving
in universality of sunnah argue: 1. that some sunnah was people and time
specific and as such that sunnah was applicable to only those people who were
commanded by our Nabi (s.a.w) to follow that sunnah; 2. That the sunnah
pertaining to worldly matters was not follow-able even in our Nabi’s (s.a.w)
period; 3. The sunnah pertaining to only religious matters is follow-able in
the present age, if such sunnah is not people and time specific. We also have
seen such a argument put forth by the people disbelieving in the universality/fundamentalism/
essentiality/ ‘hujjiat’ of sunnah is not tenable in the light of Quran.

Now we look into how Quran stresses fundamentalism/ ‘hujjiat
e sunnah’ in some other ways.

It is an accepted belief among all shades of Islamic
schools of thoughts that Quran is ‘Kalam e Allah’; it is Allah’s ‘Kalam’/words.
Quran has stated this fact in al-taubah:

“And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant
him protection so that he may hear the words/ ‘kalam’ of Allah. Then deliver
him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who do not know”
(al-tawba-6).

This verse refers to Quran as
“Kalam e Allah”. We
have also already seen this fact in my articles “Wahi, Intuition and their Implications” and “Concept of Infallibility of Prophet and Qadyaniat (5)”.

On the other hand, we find a mention in Quran
about another type of ‘wahi’; this type of ‘wahi’ is not ‘Kalam e Allah’ like
Quran. Rather this second type of ‘wahi’ is ‘Kalam e Rasool’ and ‘kalam e
Gabriel’.Quran states:

“Indeed, that (wahi) is the word of a noble Messenger/ ‘rasool”
(al-haqah-40).

“Indeed, that (wahi) is a worda
noble ‘rasool’ (Gabriel)” (al-takveer-19).

It means Quran has mentioned
about two main types of ‘wahi’; the first is Quran/ ‘Kalam e Allah’ and the
second is kalam e rasool (s.a.w)/ and “kalam e Gabriel”. This second type
of ‘wahi’ is sunnah; this facthas
already been elaborated in my article “Types
of Wahi and Sunnah”. Quran stresses the fundamentalism/ hujjiat’ of this
second type of ‘wahi’ (i.e. sunnah) in sura al-haqah:

“So I swear by what you see (38). And what you do not see (39). Indeed,
that is the word of a noble Messenger/ ‘rasool’ (40). And it is not the
word of a poet; little do you believe (41). Nor is it the work of a fore-teller
but only a few of you take heed (42). [It is] a revelation from the Lord of the
worlds (43). And if he had invented false sayings concerning Us (44). We would
have seized him by the right hand (45). Then We would have cut from him the
aorta (46). And there is no one of you who could prevent [Us] from him (47). And
indeed, it is a reminder for the righteous (48). And indeed, We know that among
you are deniers (49). And indeed, it will be [a cause of] regret upon the
disbelievers (50). And indeed, it is the truth of certainty (51). So exalt the
name of your Lord, the Most Great” (al-haqah-38-52).

This is the last paragraph
(rakuw) in sura al-haqah. Before interpreting this paragraph (rakuw), we need
to explain a principle of interpretation. In the verse 40, word 'hoo' has been used. This word 'hoo' is a third person pronoun; So
'hoo' means 'that'; it does not mean 'this'. If word 'this' has been
used, it would mean mention has been made to Quran. But word 'that' has
been used; it means mention is being made to something apart from Quran, and that something apart from Quran is Sunnah.

It is a grammatical rule and a matter
of common sense that whenever a proper noun is used previously in a paragraph and,
later on, the pronoun (of the proper noun) is used, we understand that the pronoun
refers to the proper noun mentioned previously. For instance I write: “Amjad
was a lawyer. He was a businessman as well. He was advised by Aslam to pay full
attention to his business. Now he is a successful big businessman”. In this
example, we see that the proper noun i.e. Amjad has been mentioned previously
in the beginning and latter on pronouns (i.e. he) are mentioned in all sentences.
But we understand that the pronoun (i.e. he), refers to the proper noun (i.e.
Amjad) used previously.

Similarly, in the paragraph (al-haqah-38-52)
stated above, a proper noun (i.e. rasool) has been used in verse 40. Later on
pronoun (i.e. he) has been used in verse 44, and pronouns (him) have been used
in verses 45, 46, and 47. All these pronouns, as per grammatical rules, refer
to the proper noun (i.e. rasool). It may be appreciated that it may happen (and it happens many times in Quran) that a pronoun is used in a verse without any preceding proper noun. But if proper noun has been used before a pronoun, that pronoun has to be referred to such proper noun. However it may happen that more than one proper nouns have been used before a pronoun; in such cases the pronoun will be referred to such proper noun which is most relevant to the pronoun keeping in view the context of the verses concerned. It may also be appreciated that the pronoun has to be referred to any of the preceding proper noun (s), if any, [used preferably in the same paragraph (rukuw)]; it will be wrong to refer a pronoun to a proper noun which is not included in the preceding proper nouns, if any, [used preferably in the same paragraph].

Now we turn to interpretation of
abone stated paragraph of sura al-haqah. Some scholars think that the proper
noun (i.e. ‘rasool karim’) used in verse 40 means Gabriel (a.s). It is a
misconception; actually the word ‘rasool karm’ used in this verse means ‘Muhammad
(s.a.w)/our Nabi (s.a.w). It may be appreciated that verses 44, 45, 46 and 47 state
that: “And if he had invented false
sayings concerning Us (44). We would have seized him by the right hand (45). Then
We would have cut from him the aorta (46). And there is no one of you who could
prevent [Us] from him (47)”.

If the word ‘rasool karim’ would
mean ‘Gabriel’, there would have been no point in saying that “if he had
invented false sayings, we would have cut his throat”. We know angels do not
make mistakes-angels do not make mistakes, because they do not have such a choice/capacity; similarly prophets do not make mistakes though they have such choice/capacity. There was no choice for an angel to invent false sayings. Similarly if word ‘rasool karim’ would mean ‘Gabriel’, there would have been no
point in saying that “we wouId have cut his throat”. We know that angels are
not physical entities which can be killed by cutting their throat. Obviously only
a person with blood and flesh (and a person having choice of making mistake) can be killed by cutting his throat. Therefore we
may conclude that word ‘rasool karim’ used in verse 40 does not mean ‘Gabriel’;
rather it means ‘Muhammad (s.a.w)’. It means Quran has mentioned about two
types of ‘wahi’; the first, that is Quran/ ‘Kalam e Allah’ and the second, that
is kalam e rasool (s.a.w). This second type of ‘wahi’ is sunnah.Quran stresses the fundamentalism/
hujjiat’ of this second type of ‘wahi’ (i.e. sunnah) in the same paragraph
(rukuw) of sura al-haqah stated above:

“[It is] a revelation from the Lord of the worlds (43). And indeed, it
is a reminder for the righteous (48). And indeed, We know that among you are
deniers (49). And indeed, it will be [a cause of] regret upon the disbelievers
(50). And indeed, it is the truth of certainty (51).

These verses are self-explicit. These
verses say that the ‘wahi’ which is sunnah/ the words of our Nabi (s.a.w) is
reminder for the righteous people and the people who would deny such a status
of this ‘wahi’ would have regret. In other words, whatever is the words of our
Nabi (s.a.w) is follow-able for the people; there is no distinction between our
Nabi’s (s.a.w) words/sunnah which are considered as pertaining to religious
matters and which are taken as relating to worldly matters. All words of our
Nabi (s.a.w) are follow-able by the people till qiyamah. Similarly there is no
such thing as our Nabi’s (s.a.w) sunnah/words
which are people and time specific (except words/sunnah relating to policy of implementing Deen). Whoever denies universality/
fundamentalism/ hujjiat of sunnah will have regret due to his approach towards
this type of ‘wahi’ which is words/sunnah of our Nabi (s.a.w) (continued).